Tigers square the ledger

The Melbourne Tigers levelled the NBL grand final series against the Sydney Kings, winning game two in Melbourne 104-93 on Friday evening.

The match had many parallels to the first final the Kings won in Sydney, with Melbourne once again taking a one-point advantage going into the final quarter.

But in contrast to game one, the Tigers ran riot in the fourth quarter outscoring the Kings 24-14 to level the five-game series at one-apiece.

Melbourne coach Alan Westover said the improvements were evident from Wednesday night.

"I think there was a lot of little things, I think our defence was a little bit better, they didn't shoot the ball quite as well," he told Fox Sports.

"The offence kept putting points on the board while the other night we fell in a hole, so I think that was probably the biggest improvement - that we were able to keep scoring."

Sydney's bench and an 11 point scoring streak gave the visitors a handy six-point lead at the end of the first quarter.

The Tigers, led by man-of-the-match Sean Lampley who finished with 21 points and seven rebounds, then fought back and reduced the deficit to one at the long break.

It was a crucial performance by Lampley who was completely shut out in Sydney with only four points while direct opponent Mark Worthington was brilliant.

"He [Worthington] had a great game in first game and I took that very personally because that was my assignment and I came out and stepped up tonight," he said.

"We didn't handle their pressure very well in the first game, we did tonight and played aggressive and that was the key for us winning."

Former King David Barlow, who finished with a game-high 24 points on 9 from 11 shooting and 4 triples, stamped his impact in the third while Sydney's Dontaye Draper (17 points) and Worthington (13 points) did their best to keep their side in the contest.

But some big plays by Lampley and Chris Anstey in the final period and some staunch defence from the Tigers kept the Kings at bay to level the series.

Kings coach Brian Goorjian said his side were not as efficient around the hoop as they were at home.

"We were great at getting the ball inside in game one, we had our opportunitites tonight but we turned the ball over a lot and didn't finish around the rim," he said.

"This is a series, it is going to plan so far...the pressure is back on us in game three."

The third game in the best of five series will be played in Sydney on Sunday.

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